October 30, 2025 • 35 mins
https://www.ikp.me
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Bio
K.P. (The Infamous King of Positivity) is a first-generation Honduran American of Garifuna descent and a non-binary rapper and producer whose every move is intentional. From their stage name to their sonic palette, I.K.P. creates with layered purpose.Their latest single “FTW” is a high-voltage anthem built to energize your morning, fuel your workout, or soundtrack your world domination. The track’s rattling drums and bass, combined with an eerie and dominant melody, drive a sense of urgency that perfectly matches I.K.P.’s electrifying performance.“I want them to feel unstoppable. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it for the win, and you’reundeniable,” they share.I.K.P.’s writing process is as fluid as it is instinctive. Sometimes they write with pen and pad, other times they record voice notes or use their phone’s notes app.“Inspiration strikes in fragments or floods. As they say, you don’t gotta get ready if you stay ready.”In a landscape where many artists cling to one sound, I.K.P. thrives in versatility. Whether it’s boom bap, drill, reggae, or Latin rhythms, they co-produce and collaborate across styles, honoring Hip-Hop’s hybrid roots and their own Afro-Caribbean heritage.“I gravitate towards a lot of things and I don’t like to be in a box. I do a lot of co-producing with a multifaceted team. I love Hip-Hop so much because you can make all these hybrid styles make sense.”Their sonic range mirrors a life of movement and resilience. Raised in Norfolk, Virginia after their family emigrated from Honduras, I.K.P. also served over five years in the Marines. Growing up near Portsmouth, they drew early inspiration from Missy Elliott’s boundary-breaking creativity.The name I.K.P. represents more than music. It embodies advocacy and empowerment. Their stage name was inspired by their mission to combat the stigma surrounding HIV-positive diagnoses and to use art as a tool for visibility and strength among marginalized communities.“I decided I wasn’t going to let things that happened to me define how I saw the world. I wanted to show people who looked like me and lived like me that they could gain a sense of power. And if they didn’t know how to do it for themselves, I could show them that it could be done.”I.K.P. also explores the intersection of rap, pop culture, and the evolving LGBTQIA+ experience, acknowledging both the progress and the challenges that remain. They reference artists like Kevin Abstract, Tyler The Creator, Lil Nas X, Young M.A, Steve Lacy, and Syd, trailblazers who continue to push the conversation forward.“It’s about self-actualization. Whether you’re Black, gay, and/or queer, you’re often kept out of certain rooms and conversations. I want to show people that you can always take control and be free.”For I.K.P., rap is a ritual, a reflection of joy, pain, and transformation.“I want to continue to speak for those who feel like they don’t have a voice or that their voice is being suppressed. Hip-Hop has always been a tool of progression and evolution, and I just want to continue that tradition,” they said.Their fanbase, affectionately known as #PozFriendlies, can expect a wave of new releases following the success of their fourth full-length project 11:11 | eleven eleven released in 2021. I.K.P. is also expanding their BLOCK SPINNINseries on TikTok and Instagram, a Stereogum-inspired chronicle exploring the history of Billboard Hot 100 hits.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/creator-to-creators-with-meosha-bean--4460322/support.
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Spotify
Bio
K.P. (The Infamous King of Positivity) is a first-generation Honduran American of Garifuna descent and a non-binary rapper and producer whose every move is intentional. From their stage name to their sonic palette, I.K.P. creates with layered purpose.Their latest single “FTW” is a high-voltage anthem built to energize your morning, fuel your workout, or soundtrack your world domination. The track’s rattling drums and bass, combined with an eerie and dominant melody, drive a sense of urgency that perfectly matches I.K.P.’s electrifying performance.“I want them to feel unstoppable. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it for the win, and you’reundeniable,” they share.I.K.P.’s writing process is as fluid as it is instinctive. Sometimes they write with pen and pad, other times they record voice notes or use their phone’s notes app.“Inspiration strikes in fragments or floods. As they say, you don’t gotta get ready if you stay ready.”In a landscape where many artists cling to one sound, I.K.P. thrives in versatility. Whether it’s boom bap, drill, reggae, or Latin rhythms, they co-produce and collaborate across styles, honoring Hip-Hop’s hybrid roots and their own Afro-Caribbean heritage.“I gravitate towards a lot of things and I don’t like to be in a box. I do a lot of co-producing with a multifaceted team. I love Hip-Hop so much because you can make all these hybrid styles make sense.”Their sonic range mirrors a life of movement and resilience. Raised in Norfolk, Virginia after their family emigrated from Honduras, I.K.P. also served over five years in the Marines. Growing up near Portsmouth, they drew early inspiration from Missy Elliott’s boundary-breaking creativity.The name I.K.P. represents more than music. It embodies advocacy and empowerment. Their stage name was inspired by their mission to combat the stigma surrounding HIV-positive diagnoses and to use art as a tool for visibility and strength among marginalized communities.“I decided I wasn’t going to let things that happened to me define how I saw the world. I wanted to show people who looked like me and lived like me that they could gain a sense of power. And if they didn’t know how to do it for themselves, I could show them that it could be done.”I.K.P. also explores the intersection of rap, pop culture, and the evolving LGBTQIA+ experience, acknowledging both the progress and the challenges that remain. They reference artists like Kevin Abstract, Tyler The Creator, Lil Nas X, Young M.A, Steve Lacy, and Syd, trailblazers who continue to push the conversation forward.“It’s about self-actualization. Whether you’re Black, gay, and/or queer, you’re often kept out of certain rooms and conversations. I want to show people that you can always take control and be free.”For I.K.P., rap is a ritual, a reflection of joy, pain, and transformation.“I want to continue to speak for those who feel like they don’t have a voice or that their voice is being suppressed. Hip-Hop has always been a tool of progression and evolution, and I just want to continue that tradition,” they said.Their fanbase, affectionately known as #PozFriendlies, can expect a wave of new releases following the success of their fourth full-length project 11:11 | eleven eleven released in 2021. I.K.P. is also expanding their BLOCK SPINNINseries on TikTok and Instagram, a Stereogum-inspired chronicle exploring the history of Billboard Hot 100 hits.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/creator-to-creators-with-meosha-bean--4460322/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Creators to Creators. Today,
today we have a special.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Guest, IKP, the infamous King of Positivity.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I love that welcome. Welcome, you know so I love
going back to the beginning. I always say, the beginning
charge our trajectory in life. You know, our little habits
we pick up along the way follow us into our adulthood.
Tell me a little bit about you know yourself, when
you were a child.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
What were you like? And how did you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Kind of find your way into music? And this uh
and and and the you know, the positive train that
you're on now, how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well way back yonder millenniums ago, I had really always
been you know, music has always been a kind of
a cornerstone of my family's life, and you know, of
our culture and things like that.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
So I kind of think it's in my blood.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
My father he had a band in the seventies and
he played saxophone for them, and you know, it's still
something he does to this day. Uh So it's kind
of always been embedded than me. I remember as a kid,
we you know, our family was good for throwing lots
of parties and get togethers when they were younger. I'm
(01:59):
the last child of my family. I have five over
follow the siblings. So when they were younger, my parents
would throw parties a lot because you know, that's just
kind of a Caribbean thing. I have a Caribbean background,
so anytime family gets together, there's always a party going
on somewhere. Of course, by the time they had me,
(02:22):
we move away. Originally born in Brooklyn, some raised in Virginia.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
We move away.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Parties aren't as big, but they still happen birthdays, holidays,
things like that. So music is always at the cornerstone
of my thing and me just being a curious kid,
I was alone a lot because I you know, my
my siblings are far older. My parents worked both long days,
(02:48):
and I'd just be making up worlds.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
In my home.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
At home when nobody's around, and music kind of just
kind of filtered in. After I was done with cartoons
and we got our first home PC, and you know,
from there, I just was I was kind of on
like the I would just say, it's sort of on
the on the cusp of the digital revolution.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
I grew up around that time.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
We're getting things like Napster, Lime Wire, So I got
into downloading music and and digital digital files and sharing,
sharing music like that, and still taking the music the
old way, of course through radio, video MTV BT. So
that's kind of how I got in. My curiosity got
started with with even wanting to get into.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
The music world.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
You know, I love I love I love that, and
I love this. You know this song number one, it's
it's a bop, it's fun, it's super positive, it's I
love the title, you know, uh, you know, it's all
about That's what I'm all about. And I just think
it's such a good time to talk to have music
like this out with such craziness going on in the world.
(04:01):
What inspired the concept and the energy behind your single.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
FTW Yeah, the record FTW stands for for the win,
and I think we all need a little bit of
a boost h these days, even myself included. Like, I've
been through a lot of different things and sometimes I
just want some music to kind of just boost my spirits,
boost my mood and kind of get me ready for
(04:28):
game day, get me ready for whatever the day brings,
or just in life in general.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
So that was kind of the concept. And I had
this song.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I had written it as a freestyle a while ago,
and I was trying it over different beats, and I
didn't like the way it was coming out. And then
suddenly I run into this producer that I was working
with on other records, and they, you know, they like
the energy just of the other music they were working
on with me, and you know, they we got to
(04:59):
ne we we just kind of came together, and the
producer came up with this track and the energy was
just so immediate, so urgent, It was so alive. And
I'm in the middle of just recording a lot of
other different types of materials, so I just took it
in and I ran with it, and not that same
freestyle that I've been trying over different beats. I'll just say,
(05:20):
you know, let me just do it over this, see
what happens. And then within the day I demo it,
I send it to the producer, they put it together.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
It's magic ever since.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
How involved are you when and when it comes to producing?
Are you kind of let the producer do their thing
or do you kind of have like an idea like, look,
this is what I like, I don't like. I don't
quite like this be I mean, are you like that involved?
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Actually I am involved. It depends depends on the record.
So most of the time, what I'll have is I'll
have a bunch of a bunch of tracks that I'm
I'm getting from a team of producers that I work with,
and I'll say I like this one, A, B and C.
And then I will kind of take it apart. I'll
(06:13):
ask them for the stems and go in and you know,
as I'm writing the song in real time, I'm deciding
what parts I like about to be where.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
It should drop.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So I'm really involved in a on a behind the
scenes technical level with it. So yeah, definitely, it's like
fifty to fifty. But sometimes some producers they got it
like this. This FTW is a good example of that,
where the producer just had the vibe and had the
energy and you know, you know, kind of took took
(06:48):
a lead role in doing it. But that's not typical
of me. Usually, I just kind of I want to
get a little bit of my flavor and my sauce
in there.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, definitely, you know, And then I'm curious when it
comes to you know, your your the positivity and and
you know, because nowadays, you know, rap and music, it's
really not that positive these days. It's very much about
you know, popping out looking good girls, party party, which
(07:19):
is not a bad thing. But how do you decide,
you know, what emotion or message you want to on
a track to carry before you create it.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
I love the track most of the time speak to me.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I let the track just kind of dictate what the
mood is, what the direction is, and then from there,
you know, it could be something you know, I wrote
down earlier, because I'm good for brainstorming, uh just and
and taking it keep jotting down a bunch of ideas
that I want to talk about or lines that I
(07:55):
want to get off, and then once that track comes,
I go with the energy and I and I decide, Okay,
I think I'm going to talk about this or these
or these are the bars I'm gonna start with and
just let my intuition and let my creativity kind of
guide the rest of it. So it's it's not all
the way it sometimes it's really just like it's like
(08:17):
a magical process. It's hard to pin down because it
could come from anywhere. It would come from any person, anything,
any mood, and I just decided I try to channel
that mood or channel the energy that I want to
have and celebrate and put it into whatever is in
front of me. And I think that's like the funnest
(08:38):
part is to just take a you know, just take
a vibe and really just concentrate on what I want
to say in that moment and let the let the
rest kind of be dictated by the organic process.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I love that, you know, I was gonna I was
going to ask, like, what, what's your relationship with hip hop?
How is? How is that evolved over the years, because
you know hip hop now is I don't know, it's
just it's different. Everything's different, you know how it used
to be back in the day with like yellow cool
jas and you know, I mean really old school hip
(09:15):
hop Snoop Dog and Tupac and Biggie and hip hop.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Now it's just I don't know.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Yeah, hip hop has definitely evolved a lot. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I'm definitely from the school of the Biggies and the
jay Z's and the Nases, and I come from Virginia,
so that's miss Elliott, Timberland, Pharrell, you know clips.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Those are those are my local heroes.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And you know, I grew up off of that and
I watched them navigate the game and I watched them
kind of cultivate their own sound, and I think that
was kind of the thing I took from the culture.
It's usually all about authenticity and originality and dedication to
(10:05):
the culture and the skill. So I think that is
what GUIDs me. And even though it might look different now,
what I definitely know is that hip hop is good
at embracing so many different sides, and sometimes it's slower
at embracing certain energies, like certain presentations. Definitely, queerness has
(10:29):
been has its own story, but eventually there's still space
for the evolution to occur when new ideas are brought
in or things it's left of centers brought in.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
So I like that about the culture, and I like.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
To concentrate on just that originality and that authenticity because
people can feel that authenticity no matter how you look,
no matter what you're presenting.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Do you ever revisit like old lyrics for voice notes
and find new meaning in them?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Oh? My god. So I don't know about finding new meaning.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
But there's stuff that I have written that I still
have from when I was in high school, and you know,
full disclosure, I'm not in high school, so way way
past it. But nonetheless I still have some of the
stuff that I was thinking about and just the angst,
the teenage angst that was there and kind of reviewing
(11:33):
and those that stuff that I would say was was
just me kind of venting and honing some skills and
trying to figure out how to write a song. So
none of that stuff would be would be something I
would probably use today. But I do reflect just on
how how far I've been able to go. And sometimes
(11:55):
there's some stuff that I've written, like some sometimes songs
take me a few years to come together, so you know,
a w I've been I've been kind of just stating
that maybe about a year or so, you know, it
was just a verse that I and then it's evolved
as I tried it over different beats. And sometimes songs
take me sometimes five years for me to even have
(12:18):
the courage to want to even put it out there.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
So it's like it's like.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
That, that's amazing, That's that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
What's one like creative ritual that you always do before recording?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I think I sometimes, Okay, there are some songs where
I'm gonna use vocal and like I'm going to sing
on it, and I prepare my tea to want to,
you know, help make you know, to smooth my vocal
out some either black tea or ginger tea, and I'll
(13:02):
have that with a lemon and some honey, and I'll
do and I'll have some of that, and then I'll
do my warm ups. I do about maybe thirty minutes
to forty five minutes or warm ups just to kind
of get the loosen up and relax a little before
I get into the recording process. Because the songs that
I sing on tend to be a little bit more
(13:24):
carry a little bit more of a different type of
emotional weight, and you know, I want to make sure
I get it right. I want to make sure I
get to taste good. So I'm fully pluged, I'm fully
locked in. I'm fully plugged in to that. So that's
kind of what one of the things that helps me
get through it.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I love that. I love that. That's awesome. That's a
great ritual. I love tea.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, you know, you know it's interesting because I was,
you know, when I was listening to the song, I
was thinking to myself, like, you know, I wonder when
you're doing when when indie artists versus mainstream stream artists.
And I don't know if you agree with this or not,
but I find that indie artists have more creative lead
(14:11):
way to do more freedom versus mainstream artists. It's kind
of very generic. I'm not saying it's not good, but
it's like you only can go so far. It's a
cap because you have to you know, you have to
listen to this person.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
This person is give you this money.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Do you feel like it's better for indie artists as
far as like now and being that we have streaming
and you know, you could basically do exactly the same
thing that a mainstream artist can do.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
This is true, This is very true.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I think now is probably the best time to be
an indie artist because even when I came in, I
came in as an and I've always been an indie
artist still am. And the limitations that were there in
the day beginning world or a big daunting so you know,
I'm coming in and why why distribution of your records
(15:10):
was centered on doing it through iTunes and so I
had tune Core that was one of the first companies
I had used to distribute my product, and the iTunes
web store was the main place you could have you
can tell your music for digital downloads. And now, you know,
(15:31):
over the years, distribution has gotten a lot more accessible,
a lot more robust, widespread and fluid, and you know,
you can anyone literally can you know, upload something that
they create and put it out to the rest of
the world, and you know, for better or for worse,
that's that's what it is. And the resources of course
(15:53):
have grown as well. There's different ways artists can can
can plug themselves. It's social media and all different types
of influencers out there that you can collaborate with, and uh,
there is a lot of other platforms that spotlight in
the artists to large audiences, and I think that's that's
(16:15):
awesome and that's kind of the thing that motivates me
to still keep doing it is just because it's always evolving.
There's always a new way to get your material out there.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Absolutely, Yeah, I love I love.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
You know, a lot of people are you know, they
say that it's just I mean, it is saturated. But
I think with with with all the things that we
have like streaming, it just makes it possible that we
can that music and your content can reach people, you know, remotely,
and you don't have to actually be in China, you know,
you can get those kind of listeners. So it's a
(16:51):
it's a good time too. I think there's a I
guess there's pros and cons to it all.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, for sure, FCW is out there getting all sorts
of place in Mexico and Brazil and you know, in
the in the Middle East being you know, playlisted everywhere,
and I'm looking at these stats and the happening in
real time, So like that's just mind boggling into me
because you know, it was hard for me to just
(17:17):
sell a digital download of my album way back back
in the day and now just as easily, you know,
I can reach wider audiences that can you know that
that that can come through and.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Join the join the movement.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Absolutely, absolutely absolutely. How has your advocacy against HIV stigma
shape your artistry?
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, that's been That's a big thing I've seen. I've
had friends who who kind of inspired me to go
in that direction, like so many uh many friends, people
I knew, people who passed away, you know, unfortunately as
a result of this, this this illness that's still out there.
(18:08):
It's well controlled, way more well controlled than it was before,
but the stigma is still there. And the stigma is
the reason why I keep advocating for just a different
message to be out there and a different representation or
a more evolved representation of what it could look like,
because I think people are, you know, stuck on what
(18:28):
it used to look like and what it used to
mean for the queer community or at large, and and
that's just not it. That's not always the case h
these days, and you know, I want to evolve that
that perception. But yeah, you know, I have a lot
of just a lot of dear friends that I've seen,
(18:49):
you know, I've seen living, living with the day to
day and a lot of them are thriving, and you know,
I think that needs to be highlighted as well.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, definitely absolutely. You know, how do you.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Approach authenticity in an industry that often rewards conformity.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
You got to put yourself first.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I think that's what it is for me because I
used to think that I had to be a certain
mold in order to get noticed, in order to be
seen and be recognized the way I thought I needed
to be recognized.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
But I think over the.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Years, I've kind of seen the horror stories of people
who go that route, and you know, they try to,
you know, they they bend themselves to the will of
whatever their audience is they think their audience is looking for,
or whatever the industry demands are. But I think if
you just lead with your own your own heart, your
(19:52):
own self, your own sense of identity, your own history,
I think there's a lot that you can that you
can use there, that you can mine inspiration from.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I have a fun question. I love asking this question
there and there's no wrong answer. I promise the three
levels of influence, money, power, and respect. If you could
choose only one of those things, which one would you choose?
And why?
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Wow? That is.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
You know what's crazy is when you said money, power
and respect, I figured that's where you were going. And
then I'm thinking about the song money, Power and Respect
by the lots of Little Kim and DMX, and it's like,
that's like a it's a it's a vintage record and
it's very much what kind of what were your face
(20:52):
with when you're when you're out there in the world,
you're trying to make things happen. But for me, I'm
gonna go with respect. I'd rather people respect me because
I'm gonna lead with that. I leave with respect, And
I think out of respect, you get love and then
you get you get power, you get money from from
those things. But you can have the money and you
(21:13):
can have the power, but if people don't respect you,
then your legacy is going to be tainted.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
I think that's just kind of how that goes.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, No, for sure, that's that's a great answer. Yeah,
I like it. I like that a lot. How has
being non bininary shaped your experience in.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Hip hop spaces? I'm very curious about that.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Well, the evolution is not not easy, so I'll say,
you know, it's it's it's an interesting rhyme, though I
think it's it speaks to who I've always been more
than anything else.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
And it's a it's.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
A is it changing for the better?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You think it's definitely changing for the better because I
feel freer, I feel more myself. I feel less burdened
by whatever expectations there were of me in the past
to present a certain way, to follow.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
A certain.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Through line, or or to have a certain narrative. If
you know, if I'm presenting a certain way, and I
think that you know, just me saying that, like, I
have all these facets to me and I want to
celebrate as many of them as possible and to allow
(22:49):
myself to give myself permission to do that. That's something
that kind of took the longest time for me to do.
And you know, I'm at a place now where you know,
I said, fuck it. You know what I'm saying anybody
that's watching that, I want I want people to see this,
you know, I want people to see exactly how how
(23:10):
it is, so you can decide for yourself if that's
if that's for you, and know that you don't have
to have any fear, because that was the thing for
me before. It was just the fear of being ridiculed
and being my voice being suppressed or silenced and all
of that. And you know, I went through all of
those things and I'm still here. So that's that's mainly
(23:33):
the reason why I just decide to just lead first
with my own authenticity.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
And that's what it said.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
It said, you know what, you know, this is you,
and you're just gonna You're just gonna lead others and
show others that this is If this is for you,
it's possible, and it's just possible to thrive being your
full self.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's it's kind of
it's so sad that it's I don't know, like I
guess it seems like it's more like you said, it's
more it's changing for sure in the hip hop especially community,
because I mean, for so long it was something that
was kind of like not talked about.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
And I mean we see with Little nas.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
X, we see with a lot of different UH artists
now that are expressing and being more open, which is
you know, it's really good and I mean it's great
artistry and it's like finally, like finally took.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
It took long enough.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But yeah, I love that that this is it's changing
for the better.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
That's that's good, that's great.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah, absolutely for sure. This is like and I'll be
the first to tell you, like I was there in
the very.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Beginning when it was an object. It was an object
of ridicule. It was it was like a witch hunt
to try to find out who the gay rapper was.
I lived through that era, Like radio hosts were openly
trying to out people and accusing them of being queer
(25:05):
or being gay in the hip hop space. And that
is where the that's where it started. That's where the
kind of where the conversation started. You know, before that,
it was just you know, you would hear it in
the language of the way people spoke in their songs.
You would hear you know, if I made they say
(25:26):
faggot this, and and and and to see that, you know,
you would hear that explicit language. And then, like I said,
it turned into a witch hunt of who's the gay
rapper in the industry. And then you had people like
Frank Ocean come in and change the conversation at least
and and and in black spaces and in urban spaces
(25:50):
and that was big. That was a big deal. And
I lived to see through all of that stuff. Like
I was an artist all with all of that, and
I just decided early that it was isn't going to
be Like I didn't know how much changed I could
bring to it, but I was always going to choose
my own self first.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
I was always going to choose.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
My own pride, my own artistry over anything else. And
I just came in at a time where the conversation
and pop culture was just shifting. And you know, we
we get to we get to marriage equality, and you know,
the conversation is shifting even more, and then we start
(26:34):
seeing more people come out in pop spaces and make
it happen. And I just, I just I'm really really
proud of how.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Far we've come.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
But I also know there's a whole lot more work
that can be done, and you know, I just want
to do the work, and I'm just happy to see
the evolution.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Oh yeah, I was gonna ask you this question, what
inspired the creation of your block spinning series?
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So I follow this blog, the Stereo gun blog. It's
the Number ones and it describes the history basically of
you know, pop culture, American pop culture through every Billboard
Hot one hundred number one song that has ever existed.
(27:25):
And it's always been a kind of curiosity of mind
to understand why certain songs become popular and have their
moment and how that happens, what brings so many people
to gather around this particular song that is mark demarketed
(27:48):
on this chart that kind of tracks what popular tastes are. So,
you know, that's kind of just been a curiosity of mine.
And I've been following this column. It's been out there
for since twenty eighteen, but I didn't really start reading
until about twenty twenty two. And every week I would
see the different number ones that are out that have
(28:10):
top the charts, and the editor, the editor that writes
the blogs has such compelling stories, backstories about how the
different knots and the different arms of the industry and
the different forces that come together kind of spend that
they come together and tell this tale of how your
(28:34):
favorite artists get to the top of the charts and
sometimes maybe not your favorite artists, or maybe sometimes your
artists that came in and people only knew them for
that week or that year, and then they would never
heard of ever again compelling stories like that or what
I'm into. So I wanted to I wanted to react
to that, and I wanted to put that information out
(28:57):
there and really get and really explore it really for myself,
and then you know, that's kind of how I started.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
That's true, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
What's one cultural cultural shift you'd like to see within
the music industry?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Change?
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Like?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Wow, so many so uh cultural shift in the music industry.
There's the cultural shift happening right now with AI that
I'm just kind of remain to see what that evolution
(29:40):
is going to look like. But you know, health insurance
for for artists, I think that's a big deal. I
don't think any artists should be starving or should have
to decide whether you know, they're going to live and
die on that stage and have somebody take care of
(30:01):
them if they collapse or whatever, or wonder where where
help is going to come from if they are indeed
hurt from performing and and things like that. I think
that's that's something I'd like to see after I saw
you know, I remember Chapel Rome when she was accepting
her Grammy this year, I think earlier this year, and
(30:22):
she had the whole speech that you know, just talked about,
you know, some of the things that it takes to
be an independent artist or to be an artist at all, and.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
The places where the industry could improve. And I thought
it was really compelling. And I think one of the
things she mentioned was, you know, insurance, health insurance of
some sort.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
M that'd be nice, that would be that would be lovely.
I absolutely agree with that. What advice would you give
to an upcoming artist or someone out there that's trying
to get into the music.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Industry, As cliche as it may be, you you really
have to love it. And if there is if the calling,
if the calling keeps calling and you know you're tired,
(31:18):
then that might be a sign that it's still there.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's for you. That's how you know. You just have
to know your why and you have to know your soul.
So you have to understand that if this is what
is coming from you and it speaks to you, you
hear music.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Your relationship with music is that where you know you
have a you have some kind of divine purpose that
that you want to follow through on, then then go
for it. And you know, only move when it's when
when you feel it, and you know, don't fake the
(32:01):
punk because people are going to be able to see
now more than ever, people can tell when you're not
into it, or when you're not when when you're when
you're kind of worn out, and you know so so
if the spirit lives in you to do it, you're
going to do it no matter what. You're going to
do it, no matter what's happening in front of you.
(32:22):
Because I've been, I've seen, and I've been through a lot,
and there were so many times where I just wanted
to stop, Like I wanted to stop. I wanted to
be like, you know what, I think, I think, I
think this is it. I don't know if I can
do it. I don't have the inspiration anymore. Maybe I
just settle down, get a get a regular job, or
(32:45):
you know, I've been through terrible situations where I just
never thought that, you know, I'd make it through. But
then you get the one DM or you get the
one phone call, you get the one text message from
somebody who's heard something that you've done and it moved them,
And that has to be like one of the most
(33:05):
divine parts about my journey is that I've gotten that
at my mouth's darkest days, and so that's why I
really have to give it up to my supporters, the
POD's friendlies, and because y'all really come through for me
in the darkest times and when I just didn't see
it for myself anymore. And then once I once I
(33:26):
get that text message, you know, it's like or that
that message or that that signal that you know, I'm
still it's still looking for me out here, you know,
then the fire can come to the fire will just
develop to like overcome whatever obstacle and I just keep
fighting and had not been for that, then the story
(33:47):
just might look a lot different. So you just have
to really move. If you're not moved by it, don't
do it. But if it moves you and nothing stopping
you go with that absolutely.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Guess in short, I love that. So that's wonderful advice.
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Where can people find you on social media to follow
everything you got going on?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
You can follow me at i k P dot me
on Instagram, My TikTok is the same. Facebook is i
k P Official. I k P dot me is my website.
You know, you can connect to all things for me there.
You can see all my whole journey, my whole story.
(34:31):
It's all there, so you know SoundCloud I k P
official as well, So that's that's it. That's where you
can find me.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Okay, awesome, awesome, Thank you so much for coming on.
It was a pleasure talking to you and hearing your
story or journey, and thank you for sharing everything your information.
It's it's it's always good to hear about people's journey
because you just take so many nuggets away. So thank
you so much for sharing that. It was it was
nice to hear.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I had a great time talking to you, and I
just appreciate your you having me on your show.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Absolutely absolutely, and come back again in the future anytime.
Yes to new music, come on back anytime.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Will do absolutely, There's definitely much more where that came from, so.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Importantly excited, exciting. Well, thank you all for listening, and
always remember to live, love, laugh.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
We'll see you guys next time.
If you love entertainment, current events, and Hollywood do miss
Creators to Creators Hosted by the filmmaker Mio Shavine, known
for the shutter Hit documentary or Noir and the acclaimed
film Anatomy of an Anti Heroo Redemption. This show features
interviews with filmmakers and creatives from around the globe. Join
(00:25):
the fun with guest celebrities and gain valuable insights. We'll
subscribe now and follow Creator to Creators.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Creators to Creators. Today,
today we have a special.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Guest, IKP, the infamous King of Positivity.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I love that welcome. Welcome, you know so I love
going back to the beginning. I always say, the beginning
charge our trajectory in life. You know, our little habits
we pick up along the way follow us into our adulthood.
Tell me a little bit about you know yourself, when
you were a child.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
What were you like? And how did you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Kind of find your way into music? And this uh
and and and the you know, the positive train that
you're on now, how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well way back yonder millenniums ago, I had really always
been you know, music has always been a kind of
a cornerstone of my family's life, and you know, of
our culture and things like that.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
So I kind of think it's in my blood.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
My father he had a band in the seventies and
he played saxophone for them, and you know, it's still
something he does to this day. Uh So it's kind
of always been embedded than me. I remember as a kid,
we you know, our family was good for throwing lots
of parties and get togethers when they were younger. I'm
(01:59):
the last child of my family. I have five over
follow the siblings. So when they were younger, my parents
would throw parties a lot because you know, that's just
kind of a Caribbean thing. I have a Caribbean background,
so anytime family gets together, there's always a party going
on somewhere. Of course, by the time they had me,
(02:22):
we move away. Originally born in Brooklyn, some raised in Virginia.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
We move away.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Parties aren't as big, but they still happen birthdays, holidays,
things like that. So music is always at the cornerstone
of my thing and me just being a curious kid,
I was alone a lot because I you know, my
my siblings are far older. My parents worked both long days,
(02:48):
and I'd just be making up worlds.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
In my home.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
At home when nobody's around, and music kind of just
kind of filtered in. After I was done with cartoons
and we got our first home PC, and you know,
from there, I just was I was kind of on
like the I would just say, it's sort of on
the on the cusp of the digital revolution.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
I grew up around that time.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
We're getting things like Napster, Lime Wire, So I got
into downloading music and and digital digital files and sharing,
sharing music like that, and still taking the music the
old way, of course through radio, video MTV BT. So
that's kind of how I got in. My curiosity got
started with with even wanting to get into.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
The music world.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
You know, I love I love I love that, and
I love this. You know this song number one, it's
it's a bop, it's fun, it's super positive, it's I
love the title, you know, uh, you know, it's all
about That's what I'm all about. And I just think
it's such a good time to talk to have music
like this out with such craziness going on in the world.
(04:01):
What inspired the concept and the energy behind your single.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
FTW Yeah, the record FTW stands for for the win,
and I think we all need a little bit of
a boost h these days, even myself included. Like, I've
been through a lot of different things and sometimes I
just want some music to kind of just boost my spirits,
boost my mood and kind of get me ready for
(04:28):
game day, get me ready for whatever the day brings,
or just in life in general.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
So that was kind of the concept. And I had
this song.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I had written it as a freestyle a while ago,
and I was trying it over different beats, and I
didn't like the way it was coming out. And then
suddenly I run into this producer that I was working
with on other records, and they, you know, they like
the energy just of the other music they were working
on with me, and you know, they we got to
(04:59):
ne we we just kind of came together, and the
producer came up with this track and the energy was
just so immediate, so urgent, It was so alive. And
I'm in the middle of just recording a lot of
other different types of materials, so I just took it
in and I ran with it, and not that same
freestyle that I've been trying over different beats. I'll just say,
(05:20):
you know, let me just do it over this, see
what happens. And then within the day I demo it,
I send it to the producer, they put it together.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
It's magic ever since.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
How involved are you when and when it comes to producing?
Are you kind of let the producer do their thing
or do you kind of have like an idea like, look,
this is what I like, I don't like. I don't
quite like this be I mean, are you like that involved?
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Actually I am involved. It depends depends on the record.
So most of the time, what I'll have is I'll
have a bunch of a bunch of tracks that I'm
I'm getting from a team of producers that I work with,
and I'll say I like this one, A, B and C.
And then I will kind of take it apart. I'll
(06:13):
ask them for the stems and go in and you know,
as I'm writing the song in real time, I'm deciding
what parts I like about to be where.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
It should drop.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So I'm really involved in a on a behind the
scenes technical level with it. So yeah, definitely, it's like
fifty to fifty. But sometimes some producers they got it
like this. This FTW is a good example of that,
where the producer just had the vibe and had the
energy and you know, you know, kind of took took
(06:48):
a lead role in doing it. But that's not typical
of me. Usually, I just kind of I want to
get a little bit of my flavor and my sauce
in there.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, definitely, you know, And then I'm curious when it
comes to you know, your your the positivity and and
you know, because nowadays, you know, rap and music, it's
really not that positive these days. It's very much about
you know, popping out looking good girls, party party, which
(07:19):
is not a bad thing. But how do you decide,
you know, what emotion or message you want to on
a track to carry before you create it.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
I love the track most of the time speak to me.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I let the track just kind of dictate what the
mood is, what the direction is, and then from there,
you know, it could be something you know, I wrote
down earlier, because I'm good for brainstorming, uh just and
and taking it keep jotting down a bunch of ideas
that I want to talk about or lines that I
(07:55):
want to get off, and then once that track comes,
I go with the energy and I and I decide, Okay,
I think I'm going to talk about this or these
or these are the bars I'm gonna start with and
just let my intuition and let my creativity kind of
guide the rest of it. So it's it's not all
the way it sometimes it's really just like it's like
(08:17):
a magical process. It's hard to pin down because it
could come from anywhere. It would come from any person, anything,
any mood, and I just decided I try to channel
that mood or channel the energy that I want to
have and celebrate and put it into whatever is in
front of me. And I think that's like the funnest
(08:38):
part is to just take a you know, just take
a vibe and really just concentrate on what I want
to say in that moment and let the let the
rest kind of be dictated by the organic process.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I love that, you know, I was gonna I was
going to ask, like, what, what's your relationship with hip hop?
How is? How is that evolved over the years, because
you know hip hop now is I don't know, it's
just it's different. Everything's different, you know how it used
to be back in the day with like yellow cool
jas and you know, I mean really old school hip
(09:15):
hop Snoop Dog and Tupac and Biggie and hip hop.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Now it's just I don't know.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Yeah, hip hop has definitely evolved a lot. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I'm definitely from the school of the Biggies and the
jay Z's and the Nases, and I come from Virginia,
so that's miss Elliott, Timberland, Pharrell, you know clips.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Those are those are my local heroes.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And you know, I grew up off of that and
I watched them navigate the game and I watched them
kind of cultivate their own sound, and I think that
was kind of the thing I took from the culture.
It's usually all about authenticity and originality and dedication to
(10:05):
the culture and the skill. So I think that is
what GUIDs me. And even though it might look different now,
what I definitely know is that hip hop is good
at embracing so many different sides, and sometimes it's slower
at embracing certain energies, like certain presentations. Definitely, queerness has
(10:29):
been has its own story, but eventually there's still space
for the evolution to occur when new ideas are brought
in or things it's left of centers brought in.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
So I like that about the culture, and I like.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
To concentrate on just that originality and that authenticity because
people can feel that authenticity no matter how you look,
no matter what you're presenting.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Do you ever revisit like old lyrics for voice notes
and find new meaning in them?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Oh? My god. So I don't know about finding new meaning.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
But there's stuff that I have written that I still
have from when I was in high school, and you know,
full disclosure, I'm not in high school, so way way
past it. But nonetheless I still have some of the
stuff that I was thinking about and just the angst,
the teenage angst that was there and kind of reviewing
(11:33):
and those that stuff that I would say was was
just me kind of venting and honing some skills and
trying to figure out how to write a song. So
none of that stuff would be would be something I
would probably use today. But I do reflect just on
how how far I've been able to go. And sometimes
(11:55):
there's some stuff that I've written, like some sometimes songs
take me a few years to come together, so you know,
a w I've been I've been kind of just stating
that maybe about a year or so, you know, it
was just a verse that I and then it's evolved
as I tried it over different beats. And sometimes songs
take me sometimes five years for me to even have
(12:18):
the courage to want to even put it out there.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
So it's like it's like.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
That, that's amazing, That's that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
What's one like creative ritual that you always do before recording?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I think I sometimes, Okay, there are some songs where
I'm gonna use vocal and like I'm going to sing
on it, and I prepare my tea to want to,
you know, help make you know, to smooth my vocal
out some either black tea or ginger tea, and I'll
(13:02):
have that with a lemon and some honey, and I'll
do and I'll have some of that, and then I'll
do my warm ups. I do about maybe thirty minutes
to forty five minutes or warm ups just to kind
of get the loosen up and relax a little before
I get into the recording process. Because the songs that
I sing on tend to be a little bit more
(13:24):
carry a little bit more of a different type of
emotional weight, and you know, I want to make sure
I get it right. I want to make sure I
get to taste good. So I'm fully pluged, I'm fully
locked in. I'm fully plugged in to that. So that's
kind of what one of the things that helps me
get through it.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I love that. I love that. That's awesome. That's a
great ritual. I love tea.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, you know, you know it's interesting because I was,
you know, when I was listening to the song, I
was thinking to myself, like, you know, I wonder when
you're doing when when indie artists versus mainstream stream artists.
And I don't know if you agree with this or not,
but I find that indie artists have more creative lead
(14:11):
way to do more freedom versus mainstream artists. It's kind
of very generic. I'm not saying it's not good, but
it's like you only can go so far. It's a
cap because you have to you know, you have to
listen to this person.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
This person is give you this money.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Do you feel like it's better for indie artists as
far as like now and being that we have streaming
and you know, you could basically do exactly the same
thing that a mainstream artist can do.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
This is true, This is very true.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I think now is probably the best time to be
an indie artist because even when I came in, I
came in as an and I've always been an indie
artist still am. And the limitations that were there in
the day beginning world or a big daunting so you know,
I'm coming in and why why distribution of your records
(15:10):
was centered on doing it through iTunes and so I
had tune Core that was one of the first companies
I had used to distribute my product, and the iTunes
web store was the main place you could have you
can tell your music for digital downloads. And now, you know,
(15:31):
over the years, distribution has gotten a lot more accessible,
a lot more robust, widespread and fluid, and you know,
you can anyone literally can you know, upload something that
they create and put it out to the rest of
the world, and you know, for better or for worse,
that's that's what it is. And the resources of course
(15:53):
have grown as well. There's different ways artists can can
can plug themselves. It's social media and all different types
of influencers out there that you can collaborate with, and uh,
there is a lot of other platforms that spotlight in
the artists to large audiences, and I think that's that's
(16:15):
awesome and that's kind of the thing that motivates me
to still keep doing it is just because it's always evolving.
There's always a new way to get your material out there.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Absolutely, Yeah, I love I love.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
You know, a lot of people are you know, they
say that it's just I mean, it is saturated. But
I think with with with all the things that we
have like streaming, it just makes it possible that we
can that music and your content can reach people, you know, remotely,
and you don't have to actually be in China, you know,
you can get those kind of listeners. So it's a
(16:51):
it's a good time too. I think there's a I
guess there's pros and cons to it all.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, for sure, FCW is out there getting all sorts
of place in Mexico and Brazil and you know, in
the in the Middle East being you know, playlisted everywhere,
and I'm looking at these stats and the happening in
real time, So like that's just mind boggling into me
because you know, it was hard for me to just
(17:17):
sell a digital download of my album way back back
in the day and now just as easily, you know,
I can reach wider audiences that can you know that
that that can come through and.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Join the join the movement.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Absolutely, absolutely absolutely. How has your advocacy against HIV stigma
shape your artistry?
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, that's been That's a big thing I've seen. I've
had friends who who kind of inspired me to go
in that direction, like so many uh many friends, people
I knew, people who passed away, you know, unfortunately as
a result of this, this this illness that's still out there.
(18:08):
It's well controlled, way more well controlled than it was before,
but the stigma is still there. And the stigma is
the reason why I keep advocating for just a different
message to be out there and a different representation or
a more evolved representation of what it could look like,
because I think people are, you know, stuck on what
(18:28):
it used to look like and what it used to
mean for the queer community or at large, and and
that's just not it. That's not always the case h
these days, and you know, I want to evolve that
that perception. But yeah, you know, I have a lot
of just a lot of dear friends that I've seen,
(18:49):
you know, I've seen living, living with the day to
day and a lot of them are thriving, and you know,
I think that needs to be highlighted as well.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, definitely absolutely. You know, how do you.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Approach authenticity in an industry that often rewards conformity.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
You got to put yourself first.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I think that's what it is for me because I
used to think that I had to be a certain
mold in order to get noticed, in order to be
seen and be recognized the way I thought I needed
to be recognized.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
But I think over the.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Years, I've kind of seen the horror stories of people
who go that route, and you know, they try to,
you know, they they bend themselves to the will of
whatever their audience is they think their audience is looking for,
or whatever the industry demands are. But I think if
you just lead with your own your own heart, your
(19:52):
own self, your own sense of identity, your own history,
I think there's a lot that you can that you
can use there, that you can mine inspiration from.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I have a fun question. I love asking this question
there and there's no wrong answer. I promise the three
levels of influence, money, power, and respect. If you could
choose only one of those things, which one would you choose?
And why?
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Wow? That is.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
You know what's crazy is when you said money, power
and respect, I figured that's where you were going. And
then I'm thinking about the song money, Power and Respect
by the lots of Little Kim and DMX, and it's like,
that's like a it's a it's a vintage record and
it's very much what kind of what were your face
(20:52):
with when you're when you're out there in the world,
you're trying to make things happen. But for me, I'm
gonna go with respect. I'd rather people respect me because
I'm gonna lead with that. I leave with respect, And
I think out of respect, you get love and then
you get you get power, you get money from from
those things. But you can have the money and you
(21:13):
can have the power, but if people don't respect you,
then your legacy is going to be tainted.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
I think that's just kind of how that goes.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, No, for sure, that's that's a great answer. Yeah,
I like it. I like that a lot. How has
being non bininary shaped your experience in.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Hip hop spaces? I'm very curious about that.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Well, the evolution is not not easy, so I'll say,
you know, it's it's it's an interesting rhyme, though I
think it's it speaks to who I've always been more
than anything else.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
And it's a it's.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
A is it changing for the better?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You think it's definitely changing for the better because I
feel freer, I feel more myself. I feel less burdened
by whatever expectations there were of me in the past
to present a certain way, to follow.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
A certain.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Through line, or or to have a certain narrative. If
you know, if I'm presenting a certain way, and I
think that you know, just me saying that, like, I
have all these facets to me and I want to
celebrate as many of them as possible and to allow
(22:49):
myself to give myself permission to do that. That's something
that kind of took the longest time for me to do.
And you know, I'm at a place now where you know,
I said, fuck it. You know what I'm saying anybody
that's watching that, I want I want people to see this,
you know, I want people to see exactly how how
(23:10):
it is, so you can decide for yourself if that's
if that's for you, and know that you don't have
to have any fear, because that was the thing for
me before. It was just the fear of being ridiculed
and being my voice being suppressed or silenced and all
of that. And you know, I went through all of
those things and I'm still here. So that's that's mainly
(23:33):
the reason why I just decide to just lead first
with my own authenticity.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
And that's what it said.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
It said, you know what, you know, this is you,
and you're just gonna You're just gonna lead others and
show others that this is If this is for you,
it's possible, and it's just possible to thrive being your
full self.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's it's kind of
it's so sad that it's I don't know, like I
guess it seems like it's more like you said, it's
more it's changing for sure in the hip hop especially community,
because I mean, for so long it was something that
was kind of like not talked about.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
And I mean we see with Little nas.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
X, we see with a lot of different UH artists
now that are expressing and being more open, which is
you know, it's really good and I mean it's great
artistry and it's like finally, like finally took.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
It took long enough.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But yeah, I love that that this is it's changing
for the better.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
That's that's good, that's great.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah, absolutely for sure. This is like and I'll be
the first to tell you, like I was there in
the very.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Beginning when it was an object. It was an object
of ridicule. It was it was like a witch hunt
to try to find out who the gay rapper was.
I lived through that era, Like radio hosts were openly
trying to out people and accusing them of being queer
(25:05):
or being gay in the hip hop space. And that
is where the that's where it started. That's where the
kind of where the conversation started. You know, before that,
it was just you know, you would hear it in
the language of the way people spoke in their songs.
You would hear you know, if I made they say
(25:26):
faggot this, and and and and to see that, you know,
you would hear that explicit language. And then, like I said,
it turned into a witch hunt of who's the gay
rapper in the industry. And then you had people like
Frank Ocean come in and change the conversation at least
and and and in black spaces and in urban spaces
(25:50):
and that was big. That was a big deal. And
I lived to see through all of that stuff. Like
I was an artist all with all of that, and
I just decided early that it was isn't going to
be Like I didn't know how much changed I could
bring to it, but I was always going to choose
my own self first.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
I was always going to choose.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
My own pride, my own artistry over anything else. And
I just came in at a time where the conversation
and pop culture was just shifting. And you know, we
we get to we get to marriage equality, and you know,
the conversation is shifting even more, and then we start
(26:34):
seeing more people come out in pop spaces and make
it happen. And I just, I just I'm really really
proud of how.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Far we've come.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
But I also know there's a whole lot more work
that can be done, and you know, I just want
to do the work, and I'm just happy to see
the evolution.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Oh yeah, I was gonna ask you this question, what
inspired the creation of your block spinning series?
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So I follow this blog, the Stereo gun blog. It's
the Number ones and it describes the history basically of
you know, pop culture, American pop culture through every Billboard
Hot one hundred number one song that has ever existed.
(27:25):
And it's always been a kind of curiosity of mind
to understand why certain songs become popular and have their
moment and how that happens, what brings so many people
to gather around this particular song that is mark demarketed
(27:48):
on this chart that kind of tracks what popular tastes are. So,
you know, that's kind of just been a curiosity of mine.
And I've been following this column. It's been out there
for since twenty eighteen, but I didn't really start reading
until about twenty twenty two. And every week I would
see the different number ones that are out that have
(28:10):
top the charts, and the editor, the editor that writes
the blogs has such compelling stories, backstories about how the
different knots and the different arms of the industry and
the different forces that come together kind of spend that
they come together and tell this tale of how your
(28:34):
favorite artists get to the top of the charts and
sometimes maybe not your favorite artists, or maybe sometimes your
artists that came in and people only knew them for
that week or that year, and then they would never
heard of ever again compelling stories like that or what
I'm into. So I wanted to I wanted to react
to that, and I wanted to put that information out
(28:57):
there and really get and really explore it really for myself,
and then you know, that's kind of how I started.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
That's true, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
What's one cultural cultural shift you'd like to see within
the music industry?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Change?
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Like?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Wow, so many so uh cultural shift in the music industry.
There's the cultural shift happening right now with AI that
I'm just kind of remain to see what that evolution
(29:40):
is going to look like. But you know, health insurance
for for artists, I think that's a big deal. I
don't think any artists should be starving or should have
to decide whether you know, they're going to live and
die on that stage and have somebody take care of
(30:01):
them if they collapse or whatever, or wonder where where
help is going to come from if they are indeed
hurt from performing and and things like that. I think
that's that's something I'd like to see after I saw
you know, I remember Chapel Rome when she was accepting
her Grammy this year, I think earlier this year, and
(30:22):
she had the whole speech that you know, just talked about,
you know, some of the things that it takes to
be an independent artist or to be an artist at all, and.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
The places where the industry could improve. And I thought
it was really compelling. And I think one of the
things she mentioned was, you know, insurance, health insurance of
some sort.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
M that'd be nice, that would be that would be lovely.
I absolutely agree with that. What advice would you give
to an upcoming artist or someone out there that's trying
to get into the music.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Industry, As cliche as it may be, you you really
have to love it. And if there is if the calling,
if the calling keeps calling and you know you're tired,
(31:18):
then that might be a sign that it's still there.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's for you. That's how you know. You just have
to know your why and you have to know your soul.
So you have to understand that if this is what
is coming from you and it speaks to you, you
hear music.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Your relationship with music is that where you know you
have a you have some kind of divine purpose that
that you want to follow through on, then then go
for it. And you know, only move when it's when
when you feel it, and you know, don't fake the
(32:01):
punk because people are going to be able to see
now more than ever, people can tell when you're not
into it, or when you're not when when you're when
you're kind of worn out, and you know so so
if the spirit lives in you to do it, you're
going to do it no matter what. You're going to
do it, no matter what's happening in front of you.
(32:22):
Because I've been, I've seen, and I've been through a lot,
and there were so many times where I just wanted
to stop, Like I wanted to stop. I wanted to
be like, you know what, I think, I think, I
think this is it. I don't know if I can
do it. I don't have the inspiration anymore. Maybe I
just settle down, get a get a regular job, or
(32:45):
you know, I've been through terrible situations where I just
never thought that, you know, I'd make it through. But
then you get the one DM or you get the
one phone call, you get the one text message from
somebody who's heard something that you've done and it moved them,
And that has to be like one of the most
(33:05):
divine parts about my journey is that I've gotten that
at my mouth's darkest days, and so that's why I
really have to give it up to my supporters, the
POD's friendlies, and because y'all really come through for me
in the darkest times and when I just didn't see
it for myself anymore. And then once I once I
(33:26):
get that text message, you know, it's like or that
that message or that that signal that you know, I'm
still it's still looking for me out here, you know,
then the fire can come to the fire will just
develop to like overcome whatever obstacle and I just keep
fighting and had not been for that, then the story
(33:47):
just might look a lot different. So you just have
to really move. If you're not moved by it, don't
do it. But if it moves you and nothing stopping
you go with that absolutely.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Guess in short, I love that. So that's wonderful advice.
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Where can people find you on social media to follow
everything you got going on?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
You can follow me at i k P dot me
on Instagram, My TikTok is the same. Facebook is i
k P Official. I k P dot me is my website.
You know, you can connect to all things for me there.
You can see all my whole journey, my whole story.
(34:31):
It's all there, so you know SoundCloud I k P
official as well, So that's that's it. That's where you
can find me.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Okay, awesome, awesome, Thank you so much for coming on.
It was a pleasure talking to you and hearing your
story or journey, and thank you for sharing everything your information.
It's it's it's always good to hear about people's journey
because you just take so many nuggets away. So thank
you so much for sharing that. It was it was
nice to hear.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I had a great time talking to you, and I
just appreciate your you having me on your show.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Absolutely absolutely, and come back again in the future anytime.
Yes to new music, come on back anytime.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Will do absolutely, There's definitely much more where that came from, so.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Importantly excited, exciting. Well, thank you all for listening, and
always remember to live, love, laugh.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
We'll see you guys next time.
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